Columnist Jeff German: This is no two-bit operation

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

The brothel industry isn't shedding many tears over the Bureau of Land Management's plans to demolish the historic Mustang Ranch outside Reno.

That's because the industry already has moved past the colorful days of the state's first and most famous house of prostitution, run by the notorious Joe Conforte, who fled to Brazil in 1991 to avoid paying millions in back taxes.

In 1999, with the cigar-chomping Conforte on the lam and those running the Mustang Ranch for him convicted of racketeering, the government took control of the brothel and closed it down.

At the time the Mustang Ranch, sitting on the banks of the Truckee River, was earning as much as all of the more than two dozen other legal brothels scattered throughout the state combined.

This week, as the government said it finally was ready to bring down the walls of the Mustang Ranch and do something with the property, the brothel industry reacted as it always does -- without sentiment.

"The industry lives on," said George Flint, the longtime lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Association. "The Mustang's gone, but we've got a new pleasure palace."

It's called the Resort at Sherry's Ranch in Pahrump, an hour's drive from Las Vegas.

Notice the word resort.

Sherry's Ranch operators, who include former Metro Police homicide detective Chuck Lee, seem to be following in the footsteps of the casino industry, which has become adept at reinventing itself and broadening its market base.

They're taking the experience of going to a brothel to the next level, which is taking the brothel industry to far greater heights than anything Conforte could have imagined.

And it's quietly turning Southern Nevada, which receives 35 million tourists a year, into the industry's new hub.

The Mustang Ranch attracted visitors from around the world with gaudy but modest facilities. Customers were buzzed through a 10-foot-high steel gate to a red wall-papered lobby, where they were greeted by a lineup of prostitutes for their choosing. They got down to business, settled their tab and went on their merry way.

At Sherry's Ranch the goal is to keep customers around for more than an hour, maybe an entire weekend. Operators already have built a swimming pool and posh entertainment suites, and there are plans for a golf course, a restaurant and a time-sharing condominium complex.

Who knows? One day Steve Wynn might be persuaded to build a casino on the brothel's 310 acres. Or maybe Six Flags will open an amusement park.

No wonder some state lawmakers are looking to the brothel industry to help bail the state out of its financial troubles.

The Mustang Ranch may be fading into the sunset, but the world's oldest profession is growing up in Nevada.

Are we ready for this?